TOSHIBA Fuel Cell

Toshiba broke the news today that they invented the Gigabeat, "the player of the future," a multimedia player that runs on fuel, not battery. The devices are powered by methyl spirit (methanol), one litre of which will let the prototype device run for 1,000 hours.

The players come with equipped with what I'll call a fuel gauge, a little indicator that detects the amount of methanol juice is left. Just like a car, it needs to be refueled, which the user can do on their own simply by hooking up the player using its frontal socket. On the back a tap evaporates the used methanol.

Using methanol as fuel is a lot more energy efficient than using alkaline batteries, and in the future, could also become a lot more affordable.